Higher Freight Costs
The Christmas holidays are coming and market participants are busy with their new year activities. Interestingly, bitumen and petroleum products trades are not totally off since some traders believe that the prices are magnificent at this oil price. Orders are coming from East Asia and several parts of Africa ahead of their time. The orders that were closed sooner are now suspended because of suspended shipping services to African ports. Clients and suppliers are waiting to see what the decision of principals will be. Moreover, the other destinations are now facing huge fee charges due to a shortage of containers and flowing uncertainty about the future.
Crude oil is also showing weak purchasing pressure but we need to wait until the end of the holidays so we can see the full capacity of the market. The forecast of 2024 is not very promising either. The expects believe that we will see the recession which didn’t happen in 2023.
The bitumen prices were almost unchanged in different regions but we can expect a little rate drop in India and several other prices again.
In the Middle East, the new steel drum bitumen was in the range of $ 366 – $ 371 and the bulk bitumen was in the range of $ 278 – $ 284. The bulk of Singapore is volatile in the range of $ 460 – $ 470 and South Korea is currently $ 380 – $ 490.
